Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea

Francis Grant's portrait of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea of 1847 captures one of the significant political figures of the mid-Victorian era at an early point in his career. Herbert served as Secretary at War during the Crimean War and was the political patron most closely associated with Florence Nightingale's nursing reforms — it was Herbert who sent Nightingale to Crimea and who worked with her throughout his life to reform military medical care, dying of Bright's disease in 1861 having overworked himself in public service. In 1847, when Grant painted him, Herbert was already a prominent figure in Peelite politics. The National Portrait Gallery's picture preserves his likeness before the Crimean crisis that would define his historical significance and accelerate his early death.

Grant paints the young Herbert with the elegance and ease that the sitter's aristocratic background and political prominence demanded, placing him in the formal portrait tradition while maintaining the warmth and directness that distinguished Grant's best work. The face is carefully observed and individually modeled. Costume and background are handled with fluent professionalism.